Don’t Join ISIS WhatsApp Group Interschools, Won’t Exit: Hoax

Story:

There is a watsup group called “Interschools” – if invited, don’t join the group, it belongs to Daesh (ISIS). If you join the group you will not be able to exit from it, be vigilant, please inform others. Kindly send it to your relatives , friends and children on watsup so that they will also be careful. Forward it as received.

Fact Check:

A message doing rounds on WhatsApp and social media sites warns that militant group Daesh (Arabic acronym for Islamic State) ISIS created a WhatsApp group called Interschools and is inviting people to join same. It is also warned that once people join the WhatsApp group they cannot exit it. The message started circulating in June 2017 and created slight panic among readers if it is true, but the fact being the claims about ISIS WhatsApp group Interschools are simply hoaxes.

The message suggests that ISIS is inviting random people to join their WhatsApp group Interschools, but it does not make much sense in terms of motive of a militant group. The message also claims that you will not be able to exit the WhatsApp group after joining, but generally speaking, one can easily exit a WhatsApp group at his own will. Moreover, WhatsApp provides safety features for users to report any such abusive or disturbing content in groups. Notably, there is no evidence that ISIS maintains a WhatsApp group called Interschools. The warning message is very similar to an old hoax story that instead mentioned a Daesh WhatsApp group called ‘Firdaus we ascend’.

Similar Message about a Daesh Group ‘Firdaus we ascend’

Cyber experts said the WhatsApp group Interschools was not created by ISIS and that the message is a hoax. A police officer from the Cyber Crime division attached to the Bengaluru City Police in India added that the fake message was only intended to create panic among people. Therefore the message warning people about a ISIS WhatsApp group Interschools, asking them not to join the same is just a hoax. It need not be forwarded.